Romeo, Juliet, and a Carwash
by beautyqueen321
Summary: Audrey Andrews and William Beardsley became fast friends after they met when his father married Helen and they moved to the lighthouse. ONE SHOT


**Yours, Mine, and Ours**: Yes, it's another one-shot, just a little something that came to me a while back when I couldn't sleep. I guess I just needed to get it out. I had forgotten about it, but found it on my computer when I was cleaning out the files. I don't really know how I feel about it - constructive criticism is (as always) greatly appreciated.

**Summary**: Audrey Andrews and William Beardsley became fast friends after they met when his father married Helen and they moved to the lighthouse.

Audrey Andrews sat on her bed, reading a book by one of her favorite authors. It was a dreary day and it was wet outside with a slight mist of rain falling from the sky, not enough to be called a storm, but enough to cause her normally straightened hair to curl. She was startled when her cell phone rang, it was her best friend, William.

"Hey you," she spoke into the phone.

"Hey," he replied, she could practically hear the smile on his face, "What are you doing today?"

She sighed, twirling a strand of her long brown hair around her finger, "Nothing really, I'm just reading now. What about you?"

"I'm trying to understand William Shakespeare," he said, she could tell he was frustrated. Everything usually came so easily to William, he was the star student, class president, an exceptional athlete, the guy all the other guys wanted to be, and the guy all the girls wanted to be with.

"Come on, Will, it's not that hard," she said, smiling slightly at the knowledge that she was the only one allowed to call him Will.

Their English class was reading Romeo and Juliet and would eventually be acting out a few scenes at the school's Shakespeare festival. William, always wanting perfection, wanted to be Romeo.

"I just don't get iambic pentameter... or whatever it's called, I can't say the lines in the right rhythm or something. It just sounds really foreign," he complained.

She knew he was being too hard on himself, he was always his biggest critic.

"Well of course it's going to sound foreign," Audrey said jokingly, "You have the completely wrong accent."

"Doesn't your mom have the movie? Not the newer one with that guy from Titanic, but the older one from like the seventies," he asked.

"Yeah, we watch it on occasion. You want to borrow it?" she asked.

"You know how crazy it is here, I'll never get the TV time required to finish it," William said, running a hand through his hair.

He knew he was not being entirely truthful. He could possibly get the time to watch and maybe even enjoy the movie without his family interrupting, but a big part of him wanted to watch it with Audrey. They had spent many hours in her basement on the comfortable couch or up in her room watching movies, and although he wouldn't admit it readily, he enjoyed watching her just as much as he enjoyed watching the movies. He secretly loved the way she would sometimes mouth the words of her favorite movies, or how her big ocean-colored eyes would widen when she got scared or excited. But they were friends. He had to remind himself that they were just friends.

"You there?" he heard her voice, bringing him back to reality.

"Oh, um yeah... sorry. The little kids were running around in their underwear again," he said, quickly making up something to tell her.

Audrey smiled, "Oh. Well, as I was saying, Mom is of course, gone on business or something... so, I'd love the company."

Audrey secretly envied William for his family. More often than not, she was all alone in her house. She had no siblings, her parents had divorced when she was seven, and her mother was often away on business or with whomever was the flavor of the month.

"Ok, yeah. That sounds good. I'll be over in an hour or so," he said, his stomach doing a backflip at the thought of spending time alone with her, "I can bring food if you want."

"A man after my own heart," Audrey said, despite her small frame, she could eat just as much as William, if not more and never gain a pound. She had good genes to thank for that, but she was active as well. She loved to run and she loved to dance.

William blushed, "Chinese?"

"Yes please," Audrey said with a slight giggle, the same giggle that William loved to hear.

Always one to be punctual, William arrived an hour later, knocking on the door.

Audrey came down and opened the door with a smile, "You know when it's just me here you don't really have to knock."

"Oh, well I'll remember that next time," William said, taking in her appearance.

Her usually straightened hair was curly. During the length of their friendship he could count on one hand the times he had seen her hair in its natural state. He always asked her to wear it like that more often, but she always said it was just easier to deal with when it was straight. She had on a pair of well-worn jeans, the ones he instantly recognized as her favorite pair, and a blue t-shirt. He loved it when she wore that color.

"So," she said, moving to the side, allowing him to come into the house, "To the basement?"

"Sure," he said, "I didn't bring anything to drink..."

"Oh, no worries. I'll get those and some eating utensils and meet you down there. Will you get my blanket from the closet?" she asked.

Whenever they watched a movie, she had to be snuggled into the blanket. She insisted it made the movie experience much better for her because she was so comfortable, and the fact that she was cold-natured.

"Will do," William said, heading down the familiar hallways to the basement, stopping briefly at the closet to grab her blanket.

At the start of the movie, they ate as they watched, neither of them really saying a word. William stole secret glances at her at the part where Romeo and Juliet first kissed, and noticed a slight pink tint to her cheeks as she gave an almost imperceptible sigh.

When she had finished her Lo Mein, she leaned into his side, a position that had become familiar to her. She would never say it out loud, but she had come to like William as much more than a friend. She loved how he always had a clean smell, even if it was after one of their runs along the nature trail behind the park. She liked how he made her feel special, ignoring other people when they were spending time together and focusing just on her. She loved how he payed attention and remembered things about her that nobody else seemed to notice, not even her own parents. She even loved his crazy family.

They sat there for the rest of the movie, each one savoring their moment alone. When the movie was finally over, William was the first to break the silence.

"That was a lot better than I thought," he said softly.

"It was beautiful," Audrey said, taking pride in the fact that for once she did not get all weepy from the death scene.

"Someone is a hopeless romantic," William said.

Audrey just rolled her eyes, "Come on Romeo, you need to practice if you're going to get that part."

An hour later, William still wasn't grasping the way the lines should flow.

"This isn't working," he sighed, frustrated.

"I've got an idea," Audrey said, thinking back to one of her favorite cheesy teen romance books, "Let me go get some shoes, meet me at the front door with your keys."

"What are we doing?" William asked, a smile playing on his lips for the first time in an hour.

"Don't ask questions William, just do it. This will work. It has to work," Audrey said, skipping up the stairs to her bedroom.

Once inside the car, she gave William directions that led to a car wash.

"A car wash?" William asked, confused, "Audrey, it's raining, it'll be a waste of money."

"Just trust me on this one okay? Pull up to the automatic one," she said, pulling both a ten dollar bill and a copy of the play from her purse.

Once the car wash started, Audrey unbuckled and turned to William, who did the same.

"Now, you hear the swish sound of the water?" She paused as William nodded, "Just read this at the same speed and rhythm."

William turned to the death scene and began to read, hesitantly at first, but then with more confidence. A small smile played on Audrey's lips as she listened, following along in her own book. Then they came to the kiss. Audrey blushed and looked down at her hands folded neatly in her lap.

"And then Romeo kisses Juliet," she said, still not making eye contact.

William placed a finger under her chin and lifted her face up so that Audrey would be looking at him. He repeated his line before moving his hand to the back of her head and pressing his lips softly to hers.

She was surprised at first and pulled away slightly, leaving only millimeters separating her lips from his. She allowed her hands to float up his forearms until they rested first on his shoulders then around his neck.

William could hear his heart pounding in his ears. He wondered what was going through her mind.

"Please," he whispered. His brain reeling, he didn't know exactly why he said that word, but he didn't want to take back the kiss, that was for sure.

Audrey licked her lips, her fingers tracing lazy shapes on the back of his neck before she closed the gap between their lips. Her kiss was more sure than his. It was like a release of all the pent up emotions they held for each other. It was slow, soft, and steady, their lips only breaking for seconds at a time that were separated by short pecks and smiles.

When the loud buzzer went off, alerting them to slowly exit the wash they sprang apart, the fingers of one of Audrey's hands flew to her now slightly swollen lips.

"So what does this mean?" she wondered out loud when they finally pulled up at her house.

"It... it means that I like you. I don't want to be just friends anymore. I want to be your Romeo," William said, suddenly liking Shakespeare.

Audrey wrapped her arms around his neck and brought her lips to his once more.

"So is that a yes?" William asked with a grin.

"Definitely," Audrey said before William leaned in to kiss her again.

Two weeks later, William was on stage as Romeo to Audrey's Juliet. Their class won the festival and William and Audrey won both best kiss and best chemistry.


End file.
